This invention relates to an apparatus of the household type for the preparation of beverages, more particularly of artificial mineral water.
In U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 122,488 filed Mar. 9, 1971, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,492 there is disclosed an apparatus of the kind referred to above, which comprises as its characteristic component parts a demineralizing device for the feeding water of the apparatus, a mineralizing device having the object of introducing in the demineralized water the ions which are characteristic of the mineral water one desires to obtain, and control means for the automation of the machine. More particularly, demineralization is obtained by the agency of a distillation apparatus, the use of which is efficient but, due to its known operating principle, causes a considerably high running cost of the entire machine.
To correct this defect, there has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,492 an apparatus of the kind referred to above, in which the demineralization of water is obtained by fractional crystallization.
Fractional crystallization is obtained by means of a refrigerating circuit whose evaporator can be displaced by the agency of a linkage from a collecting container for the feeding water to an ice collecting tank and vice versa, during the several stages of the operation. These displacements, moreover, are associated to appropriate reversals of the cycle of said refrigeration circuit.
This latter approach affords a substantial economy in operation but gives rise to another technical problem, that is, that of the presence of movable mechanical component parts. This fact involves reliability problems and wear problems of the component parts which are subjected to frictional forces, the construction of these parts being comparatively intricate.
An object of the present invention is to combine the advantages of the approaches indicated above, while simultaneously removing all the defects, thus providing a beverage preparing machine capable of a virtually static operation.
This object is achieved according to the invention by means of an automatic household-type apparatus for the preparation of beverages, especially artificial mineral water, comprising a demineralizing device having a refrigeration circuit with a principal evaporator and an auxiliary evaporator for the fractional crystallization of the fed-in water, a mineralizing device having the purpose of introducing in the demineralized water the ions which are characteristic of the mineral water one desires to obtain, and control means for the automation of the machine. The present apparatus includes shower means for the diffusion of the fed-in water onto the outer surface of the principal evaporator, which is in a fixed position in said refrigeration circuit, a tray adapted to receive the fed-in water and to collect the water dripping from said evaporator, circulation means for sending to said shower diffuser the water contained in said tray, chute means adapted to convey the ice formed on said evaporator and separated therefrom through its heating in a conventional manner in a container wherein first heating means are housed for melting said ice, siphoning means for transferring at least a part of the melted water into said mineralization device and then into a reservoir adapted to store the mineralized water and equipped with means for controllably dispensing same.
The features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly apparent from the ensuing description, given by way of nonlimiting example only, of a preferred embodiment of the subject machine.